Chantix Suicide Settlement

I think it is pretty clear that Pfizer is not racing to the courthouse steps to try Chantix suicide cases. Last week, Pfizer settled – and I bet paid a ton – a Chantix suicide case from Minnesota, just five days before trial. Pfiser probably overpaid on the case, the defense lawyers got a chance to bill like crazy for trial prep, everyone wins.

The settlement is probably the direct result of the trial judge’s refusal to delay the trial to give Pfizer a chance to get its experts up to speed on new clinical trial data that just came out on Chantix. Who released the new Chantix data? Pfizer, of course. In denying the motion, the judge stated the obvious: Pfizer had known for years that it was conducting the study and said that the trials were not going to get stayed until every last piece of data analyzing Chantix was in.

Although the case was a Minnesota case, the case was set to be tried before the Chantix MDL judge in Alabama. The next Chantix suicide trial will actually be an Alabama case, slated for January next year.